embedsocialskillsinstructionininclusivesettings.txt

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20 W 
AYS T 
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Robin H. Lock, Dept. Editor 

Embed Social Skills 


Instruction in 
Inclusive Settings 


NICOLE S. FENTY, MELISSA A. MILLER, AND ANDREA LAMPI 


Keywords: social skills; inclusion; students with disabilities; instructional 
strategies 

There is a current trend to include students with or at risk for 
learning and behavior problems in the general education 
curriculum (National Center for Education Statistics, 2005). 
Typically, in general education classrooms, the focus is on re-
mediating academic skill deficits rather than social behavior 
problems (Colvin, Kameenui, & Sugai, 1993). Although students 
with social skills deficits are increasingly participating 
in the general education curriculum, teachers are hesitant to 
devote academic time to social skills development (Korinek 
& Popp, 1997). The result is a reliance on pull-out programs 

� 2008 Hammill Institute on Disabilities 
10.1177/1053451207312922 
http://isc.sagepub.com 

that occur in isolation, which rarely result in successful generalization 
and maintenance of target skills (Forness & 
Kavale, 1996; Lewis, 1994). Many researchers believe that 
the key to promoting appropriate social behaviors is to incorporate 
social skills instruction in the academic curriculum 
(Korinek & Popp, 1997). Teachers in inclusive settings can 
achieve this by monitoring the social contacts of students 
with disabilities, implementing activities that develop positive 
peer relations, and explicitly instructing children in need 
of further social skills development (Ramsey, 2004). Instructional 
strategies that combine social and academic learning in 
a meaningful way can help students who are at risk for school 
failure (Korinek & Popp, 1997). The fol lowing strategies can 
be used to embed social skills instruction in inclusive settings. 

186 INTERVENTION IN SCHOOL AND CLINIC VOL. 43, NO. 3, JANUARY 2008 (PP. 186�192) 


Assessment 


Identify skill vs. performance deficits. Begin by

1 
deciding on the behavioral expectations you 
have for your students, then identify which students 
exhibit behaviors that deviate from those 
expectations. For each of these students, you 
will need to determine whether he or she lacks 
the skill or possesses the skill but doesn�t perform 
it (Gresham, Sugai, & Horner, 2001; 
Patterson, Jolivette, & Crosby, 2006). By in formally 
interviewing other adults who interact 
with the student, you can find out whether the 
student has demonstrated the appropriate behavior 
in other settings. If the behavior is not 
a part of the student�s repertoire, you will need 
to provide formal instruction. If the student 
has previously demonstrated the behavior, intervention 
will still involve instruction, but the 
focus will be on when and why rather than how 
to demonstrate the behavior. Formal and informal 
data collection procedures can help determine 
the severity of the skill or performance 
deficit. 

Monitor behavior. Because problem behavior 

2 
disrupts teaching, the frequency or duration of 
such behavior sometimes seems greater than it 
actually is. The best way to be sure is to monitor 
the occurrences of the behavior (Vincent, 
Horner, & Sugai, 2002). In addition to frequency 
and duration, you must also identify the factors 
that trigger or maintain the behavior. Knowing 
when and why a behavior is likely to occur 
is critical to developing prevention efforts 
(O�Neill et al., 1997). For example, Mrs. Jenkins 
believes that Susie, a student in her third-
grade class, exhibits frequent outbursts during 

3 


instruction. She uses word processing software 
to create a table that allows her to check off 
how often Susie has an outburst (see Figure 1). 
Because she would also like to know what 
might be causing Susie�s outbursts (attention, 
escape, or avoidance), Mrs. Jenkins includes an 
anecdotal section that allows her to re cord the 
events that occur right before and right after 
the outbursts. Mrs. Jenkins then invites Mr. 
Tebs, the exceptional student education teacher 
at the intermediate level, to come and collect 
data while she is teaching. Mrs. Jenkins�s table 
indicates that Susie has seven outbursts during 
a 20-min instructional period. The anecdotal 
data indicates that just before Susie has an outburst, 
Mrs. Jenkins asks the class a question. 
Mrs. Jenkins�s question is followed by Susie 
raising her hand and then immediately shouting 
out the answer. Susie�s outbursts are always 
followed by a reprimand from Mrs. Jenkins. 
Based on the data, Mrs. Jenkins is certain that 
Susie�s outbursts are frequent and occur because 
she seeks attention. Mrs. Jen kins must now decide 
on a replacement behavior for Susie. The 
biggest challenge to monitoring behavior is 
finding the time. Try to designate a day or two 
when you have 15 to 20 min to observe the student. 
To hold yourself accountable, write the 
times into your lesson plans. Like Mrs. Jenkins, 
you may also want to consider making use of 
other members of your school faculty (interns, 
guidance counselors, and fellow teachers) to assist 
you with data collection. 

Select and prioritize replacement skills. Before 
you can begin instruction, you must decide 
what you want the student to do instead of the 
inappropriate behavior (O�Neill et al., 1997). 


FIGURE 1. Checklist of problem behaviors. 

VOL. 43, NO. 3, JANUARY 2008 187 


Make sure the behavior you choose is relevant 
(looks normal in the environment), reasonable 
(can be done by the student), and reinforceable 
(can be observed and acknowledged by the 
teacher). Also, when thinking about a replacement 
skill, don�t forget to set a timeline for how 
long you expect it to take for the student to 
master the new skill. It might be a good idea to 
plan for students to acquire new skills in stages 
or steps. For instance, you might expect students 
who have trouble raising their hands to 
be raising their hands more often after a week of 
instruction and practice and then to be consistent 
after a month. You may also find that one 
or more of your students have deficits in a number 
of skills. You should introduce one new skill 
at a time to students, but how do you decide 
which skills to focus on first? Prioritize the 
skills that are most crucial to the academic and 
social success of both the student and your class 
as a whole. For instance, if you find that your 
students are having trouble with calling out, 
bullying, and tattling, you might choose to 
focus on bullying because it could have a detrimental 
impact on both the academic and social 
success of your students. 

Conduct reinforcement surveys. To effectively 

4 
shape student behavior, you need to recognize 
and reinforce appropriate behaviors. Some students 
want to be praised publicly for their appropriate 
behavior, but others do not. To 
discover what is reinforcing to students, you 
may observe them and their responses to naturally 
occurring reinforcers. You may also use 
reinforcer surveys (available on the Internet 
and in a variety of texts) to ask students what 
they want. You can conduct surveys during the 
first week of school and again periodically 
throughout the school year. Provide younger 
students with a list of activities (e.g., recess, 
lunch with the teacher, good note or phone call 
home). Students can then write a �yes� or �no� 
or a smiley face or sad face to indicate their 
preferences on the list. For older students, 
cloze statements might be more appropriate. 
These students can complete statements such as 
the following: �The best compliment my 
teacher can give me is . . .� �I like to use my 
free time in school to . . .� �When I do a good 
job, I like it when my teacher . . .� 

Develop a plan. Meet with your students to dis


5 
cuss a plan for behavioral issues (O�Neill et al., 
1997). For an example of this, let us return to 

6 


Susie, Mrs. Jenkins�s third-grade student, who 
has trouble calling out. Mrs. Jenkins decides to 
talk with Susie about the importance of waiting 
her turn. She reminds Susie that outbursts are 
unfair to other students and are distracting. Mrs. 
Jenkins asks Susie how she can help her remember 
to remain quiet when she raises her hand. 
When Susie is unsure, Mrs. Jenkins suggests 
that before she asks questions, she will provide 
the entire class with a reminder to �raise your 
hand and wait to be called on.� She then tells 
Susie that she will provide her with a silent signal 
acknowledging that she has seen that Susie 
has raised her hand. Mrs. Jenkins also suggests 
that they make a small sign for Susie�s desk that 
states, �Wait for the signal.� Susie agrees to give 
the plan a try. Mrs. Jenkins and Susie write up 
the plan and they both sign it. 

Instruction 

Engage in daily morning meeting activities. 
Morning meeting, which involves greeting, listening 
to, and responding to members of the 
group, provides one way to build community 
within the classroom. During morning meeting, 
the social and academic curricula are 
equally important. Morning meeting should 
occur at the beginning of each day and last 
approximately 10 to 20 min. It consists of four 
steps: greeting (children greet and welcome one 
another by name), sharing (encouraging children 
to value the opinions of others while 
learning to articulate their thoughts), activity 
(a fun way of fostering participation by encouraging 
cooperation rather than competition), and 
news and announcements (ensuring that children 
know about special events or changes in the 
class routine). Greeting time is a perfect op portunity 
for students to practice social skills, 
such as appropriate ways to greet classmates or 
adults. Use sharing time as an opportunity to 
showcase skill use in the classroom or at home 
by asking children if they had the opportunity 
to use social skills learned in previous lessons 
and discussing their use of the skill as well as 
the outcome. Another time to emphasize social 
skills during morning meeting is during the 
activity. The teacher can model such skills as 
taking turns, cooperative play, and problem 
solving. For more information on morning 
meeting, consult The Morning Meeting Book 
(Kriete, 2002). 

188 INTERVENTION IN SCHOOL AND CLINIC 


Take advantage of teachable moments. When 
the students are lining up to go to lunch and 
they are yelling and roughhousing in the pro cess, 
take advantage of this teachable moment by in-
volving those students who do not have severe 
social skills deficits. Ac knowl edge the actions of 
students who are following the correct lining-
up procedure and use this as a positive teach-
able moment. Have students return to their 
desks and review the expectations, and have a 
few students model the correct behavior for the 
whole class. Students are most likely to remem-
ber expectations when they are taught them 
immediately instead of hours or days later. 
Teach social skills the same way you teach acad-
emics. Social skills should be taught in the same 
way as academic skills: by using effective instruc-
tional strategies (Sugai, 1996). Imagine teach-
ing how to elicit teacher attention in the same 
way you would teach addition. Start by explain-
ing why the lesson is important; then explain 
the skills involved in mastering the lesson. 
Show students how they can exhibit skill mas-
tery. Finally, have students practice the new 
skill with supervision and feedback. 
Connect social behaviors to academic skills. Aca-
demic skills include a set of social behaviors nec -
essary to the learning process (Sugai & Lewis, 
2004; Williams & Reisberg, 2003). For example, 
during guided reading students take turns read-
ing, so it becomes necessary for others to wait 
their turn. This creates an opportunity to teach 
the skill of �waiting your turn� and to practice it 
frequently. When planning your academic les -
sons, consider the social behaviors essential to 
student learning. Try to incorporate instruction 
in the skills necessary for demonstrating those 
social behaviors into your academic lessons. 
Teach social skills in context. The most effec-
tive method of promoting skill acquisition is to 
provide the opportunity to actually perform 
the skill in context (Chen & Bullock, 2004; Elk-
snin, 1996). For example, the lunch monitor has 
been complaining about the behavior of Mr. 
Sanders�s fourth graders in the lunchroom, who 
have been kicking each other under the table. 
Mr. Sanders chooses to teach and practice the 
skill of keeping feet to self in the lunchroom be-
cause he feels students are more likely to trans-
fer what they have learned to real situations 
when they have practiced in real contexts. 
9 
8 
7 
10 
11 


Role play. After a skill has been explained and 
modeled by the teacher, the students can practice 
it through role play (Sugai & Lewis, 2004). 
This is yet another instance during which you 
can encourage the participation of other students 
who have less trouble with social skills. 
While two to three students role-play the social 
skill, the other students in the class can act as 
judges for specific parts of the skill. For example, 
while Jimmy and Bobby are role-playing 
how to listen appropriately during a conversation, 
divide the class into three groups. One 
group would watch to see if Jimmy�s eyes were 
on Bobby, another group would watch to see if 
Jimmy listened quietly by not talking, and the 
third group would watch to see if Jimmy answered 
after Bobby finished talking. Remember 
to be positive, reinforce appropriate responses, 
and incorporate student examples. 

VOL. 43, NO. 3, JANUARY 2008 189 


can provide insights into how to reinforce 
students. The most important factor is to be sure 
that you are consistently pairing reinforcers with 
desired behaviors. In the beginning, the ratio of 
reinforcement to desired behavior might be 
high. As time passes and students begin to master 
skills, you should consider 
fading the number of reinforcers. 

Provide prompts and cues. A great part of stu


15 
dents� success comes from reminders of classroom 
and schoolwide expectations. Prompts 
and cues help to set students up for success 
(Colvin, Sugai, & Patching, 1993; DePry & 
Sugai, 2002). They should occur directly before 
a possible bad situation. To provide prompts 
and cues, you must be able to anticipate the potentially 
bad situation and curb that behavior 
with a reminder. This awareness comes from 
prior careful observation of student behaviors. 
In the earlier example with Mrs. Jenkins�s student 
Susie, Mrs. Jenkins decides to provide the 
entire class with a �wait your turn� prompt before 
she asks a question, which helps prevent 
outbursts from Susie and other students. 

Provide feedback. Feedback should occur after

16 
formal instruction and practice and after real and 
contrived tests of skill acquisition. Feedback 
should involve acknowledgment of 
success, reference to what the student did 
correctly, and mention of areas needing improvement 
(Elliot & Gresham, 1991; Lane, Menzies, 
Barton-Arwood, Doukas, & Munton, 2005). 

Generalization 

Involve other members of the school faculty. 

17 
One of the most difficult aspects of social skills 
instruction is getting students to generalize appropriate 
behaviors beyond the classroom or a 
specific teacher. One way to help them do this 
is to inform other members of your school faculty 
(teachers, administrators, etc.) of the type 
of skills you are working on in your classroom. 
Encourage other faculty members to look for 
students who exhibit the desired behaviors and 
reinforce them for doing so. This will increase 
the likelihood that students� appropriate behaviors 
occur even when you are not around. For 
example, Mr. Smith, the school�s art teacher, 
knows that Ms. McPhee is working on hand 
raising with her second-grade students. He can 
help to ensure that Ms. McPhee�s students acquire 
and generalize this skill by 

Provide both examples and nonexamples.

12 
When teaching a social skill for the first time, 
demonstrate examples and non examples (Sugai, 
1996). Examples model the appropriate skill, 
while nonexamples show the inappropriate skill. 
Non examples are useful for clarifying the difference 
between what you want students to do 
and what you do not want them to do. Only 
the teacher models nonexamples; you do not 
want students practicing what they should not 
do. In addition, when students are practicing, 
provide them with a variety of positive examples 
so that they will be prepared for the range 
of potential occurrences in the natural environment. 
For example, Mr. Frank is working with 
his second graders on how to solicit help. His 
examples include students physically raising 
their hands or placing a sign that says �Help� 
on their desks. Because help cannot always be 
immediate, 
Mr. Frank gives students options for what to 
do while they wait for help, such as moving on 
to a different question. Mr. Frank then demonstrates 
some nonexamples for students, such as 
calling out for help or throwing work down on 
the floor in frustration. Mr. Frank ends the lesson 
by having students demonstrate some correct 
ways to solicit help. 

Maintenance 

Use self-monitoring. Allow students to help

13 
you keep track of their own behavior and 
progress. When students are able to see how 
their behavior has improved, it helps to motivate 
them (Gumpel & David, 2000; Kern, 
Dunlap, Childs, & Clark 1994). Just as students 
can track their own academic progress, they can 
monitor their behavioral progress. Self-monitoring 
can occur in a number of ways. Students 
can record their behavior during a short 
period of time, or you can create a chart for 
them to record their daily or weekly progress. 
It is probably best for you to scaffold this 
process by first monitoring the behavior with 
the student. Based on readiness, you can 
slowly relinquish the responsibility of monitoring 
to the student. 

Provide reinforcements. The best reinforcer is

14 
one that is natural. After determining the function 
of the behavior during the data collection 
stage, select a reinforcer that matches the function 
(Sugai, 1996). Using reinforcement surveys 

190 INTERVENTION IN SCHOOL AND CLINIC 


acknowledging and reinforcing appropriate 
hand-raising behavior. Mr. Frank can provide 
a simple comment, such as, �Johnny, I know 
Ms. McPhee is working with you on raising 
your hand when you need help. I like the way 
you are raising your hand to ask for help.� Skill 
acquisition and generalization will increase as 
the number of school faculty members who are 
aware of Ms. McPhee�s target skills increases. 

Involve parents. Parents are key to helping

18 
students maintain and generalize their target 
behaviors across people and across settings. Inform 
parents of the skills you are working on 
in your classroom. Encourage them to work on 
skills that are appropriate in the home setting. 
During morning meeting, students can share 
how they practiced some of their skills at home. 

Evaluate. Students need opportunities to prac


19 
tice skills in contrived and real situations 
(Sugai, 1996). Contrived situations can occur 
after instruction and practice and should be followed 
by immediate feedback. Real situations 
can occur at any time, which is why it is important 
for other adults (school faculty and parents) 
to be aware of students� target skills. Error 
analysis can be used to determine if and where 
instruction needs to be refocused. 

Involve all students. Not all students may re


20 
quire remediation of all social skills, but every 
student in the class can participate by providing 
feedback and reinforcing peers for using appropriate 
social skills. Encourage students to look 
for their classmates who exhibit positive behaviors. 
Peers can acknowledge and reinforce appropriate 
social behaviors, for example, by 
offering verbal praise or filling out �caught you 
being good� cards. Cards should include the 
target student�s name and what the student was 
doing when he or she was �caught.� They can 
be deposited into a �caught you being good� 
box, which can be emptied daily or weekly. Students 
whose names appear in the box can be reinforced 
according to their responses to 
reinforcement surveys. 

By embedding social skills in everyday practices in 
gen eral education settings, students with behavior problems 
are successfully included. Assessment strategies allow 
teachers to determine student needs and develop appropriate 
intervention plans. Instructional strategies facilitate 
the teaching of essential social skills. Maintenance 
strategies promote continued use of the new social skills. 
Generalization strategies encourage the expansion of 

acquired social skills to new settings. Used together, 
these strategies have the potential to improve student behavior 
and increase academic work time. This list is a 
framework of essential techniques for successfully embedding 
social skills in inclusive classrooms. 

ABOUT THE AUTHORS 

Nicole S. Fenty, MEd, is a doctoral candidate in the Depart ment 
of Special Education at the University of Florida. Her research 
interests include reading difficulties and behavior 
disorders. She has worked for several years as a special educator 
in resource and inclusive settings. Melissa A. Miller, MEd, is a 
doctoral candidate in the Department of Special Education at 
the University of Florida. Her research interests include reading 
difficulties and behavior disorders. She taught students with 
emotional or behavioral disorders for 8 years before beginning 
her doctorate in special education. Andrea Lampi, MIT, is a 
doctoral candidate in the Department of Special Education at 
the University of Florida. Her research interests include teacher� 
student relationships and positive behavior supports. She has 
worked for several years as a behavior specialist. Address: Ni cole 
S. Fenty, PO Box 117050/G-315 Norman Hall, Gaines ville, 
FL 32611-7050; e-mail: nscarlet@ufl.edu 

AUTHORS� NOTE 

Preparation of this article was supported in part by the Model Demon stration 
Grant H324M020068 from the U.S. Department of Education. 
Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the position of the U.S. 
Department of Education, and no endorsement should be inferred. 

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192 INTERVENTION IN SCHOOL AND CLINIC